Capio St Göran Hospital

Results

Enabled over 1,700 users to access 5,000 documents with better organization and version control

Provided an intuitive document repository with full integration with the organisation’s intranet

Eliminated The need for specialised staff training has been eliminated; users simply select a document template and Alfresco does the rest

Provided a structure where security and provenance of all procedural documentation is now assured;

Enabled users to only access the latest and most up-to-date version of documentation and provided comprehensive search capabilities to better find key information faster

Challenge

With around 1,700 employees treating 70,000 emergency patients each year, Capio St Göran is one of Sweden’s largest emergency hospitals. Founded in 1994, the hospital was the first privately owned hospital in Sweden and today provides care in 31 specialist disciplines. Since 2000 the hospital, which is situated in central Stockholm, has been part of Capio AB, one of Europe’s largest private healthcare providers.

An emergency hospital is a high-pressure environment where fast access to the right information can mean the difference between life and death. With staff under pressure, the ability to access up-to-date clinical information is an operational imperative.

￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼Clinicians, nursing and support staff at Capio St Göran rely on detailed procedural documentation to ensure the care and treatment they deliver meets the latest best practice standards. The hospital’s documentation covers a huge variety of actions — from how to carry out an ECG, to ordering and handling medicines or the delivery of specific treatments.

The hospital had identified that its incumbent document sharing system was inhibiting the ability of staff to focus on the central task of assisting patients. Accessed through shared folders on their intranet, there was no structure in place to ensure the most recent version of a document was saved. This created a risk that employees could unknowingly use different or out-dated document versions – a situation that was complicated yet further if staff saved information on a local drive and as a result distributed out-of-date documents to colleagues.

“In a working environment like ours, it is vital that all information is correct and that only up-to-date documents are used,” explains Marie Carisson, Project Manager, Capio St Göran Hospital.

As one of the most innovative emergency treatment centres in Sweden, the hospital wanted to invigorate its document management capabilities to maximise the safety and performance of its clinical teams. It needed a solution that would enable it to:

Ensure anyone can use the system without the burden of time-consuming training that potentially could divert focus from their core responsibilities

Designate document owners who could oversee the quality of documentation produced by cross- departmental teams

Introduce structured search capabilities that would allow staff to locate and use the latest guidance fast.

Solution

Capio St Göran took the decision to implement a document management solution built on Alfresco for two key reasons. First, Alfresco offered peerless integration with a new intranet being developed for the hospital. Based on EpiServer CMS, Alfresco was integrated using REST Services and would deliver the simplicity of use that was essential for such a diversified group of end-users. Finally, as an open source solution Alfresco gave the hospital a low cost development route to creating a tailored document management system that met its exact needs.

“We considered Alfresco’s qualities for smooth integration to be superior to other, more drain-pipe solutions,” says Marie. “In addition, the price model was important. With open source you only pay for what you want to develop and for support costs. A company can sometimes spend millions and still not get exactly what they want.”

The introduction of Alfresco took place in parallel with the development of the new intranet.

Integration and development of the document management system was undertaken by Alfresco’s partner Redpill Linpro. Users now simply click a button in the intranet to create a new document. Help is available in the form of pre-designed templates and a structured process is in place to secure documents for their entire lifecycle.

In use for over a year, the intuitive look and feel of the system has meant all users across the organisation can create, collaborate or search for documents with ease.

“We now have a system that is simple to use, and one where the information flow is automatically managed,” confirms Marie. “The risk of incorrect information being spread in the organisation has been significantly reduced, and we’ve eliminated the need to invest time in providing employees with specialised user training.”

￼￼“We now have a system that is simple to use, and one where the information flow is automatically managed. The risk of incorrect information being spread in the organisation has been significantly reduced, and we’ve eliminated the need to invest time in providing employees with specialised user training.” — Marie Carisson, Project Manager, Capio St Göran Hospital